'Fruitful' finish for Toyota.

Toyota has concluded its pre-season testing programme ahead of the upcoming Formula 1 season with a 'fruitful' day of running at Jerez on Thursday.

Race drivers Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli took to the track in Spain for the final day of running prior to the Australian Grand Prix to continue the programme started on Wednesday.

With dry weather conditions, the team tried out its race-one aerodynamic package and also worked on optimising set-ups before the trip to Melbourne. Trulli posted the quicker time of the two, with a lap of 1min 18.589secs and the Italian said he was happy with how the two days of running had gone.

"It has been two useful days and we have checked some things on the car and pushed even further with car performance," he enthused. "We tried different things on the set-up with the latest aero package and they seemed to go well. I have to say the last two days have been good in terms of reliability so I am more confident now going to Melbourne."

Both Trulli and Schumacher were able to complete the test without any technical problems, although Schumacher was forced into an unscheduled break from his programme when he hit a bird. The German managed just under half the number of laps completed by Trulli and was just over a second slower.

"In general we have had a productive two days of testing and we have not had many problems at all, except for catching birds!" he said at the end of the day. "It has been quite a painless test really and we have made good progress. We have worked hard all winter to improve the car and now we go to Melbourne where we will push hard for a strong start to the season."

With the test having proved to be a success, both drivers will now hope to make a strong start to the season at Albert Park, with chief race and test engineer Dieter Gass stating that the target was to build on the pace displayed in the two days in Spain.

"We had a very successful final preparation day for Melbourne," he said. "In perfect conditions throughout the whole day, we were concentrating again on fine-tuning the car set-up around our race one aero package and the tyres which we will use in Melbourne. Both drivers put in some competitive lap times and had no technical issues at all during the day.

"Ralf was a little bit unlucky when he hit a bird with the front left suspension, which had to be replaced for safety reasons as a consequence. This obviously caused us to lose some valuable running time. We are now more confidently heading towards Melbourne, where our target is to carry over the form we showed during our final two testing days."